“I live in New York,” I thought to myself. “What am I doing in an Egyptian crypt like this?”
The first thing I could feel was the coarse sandstone slabs that rested against my body. Heat and light from the nearby torches light up the surrounding area. I rub my head, feeling a lump the size of Mount Everest. I scan the area, trying to discern the shapes of light and the wisps of darkness. Along the sides are hundreds of soldier statues with armored tunics carved into their stone form, cats heads instead of human ones, and holding curved swords. Right behind them are ancient hieroglyphs with torches every now and then covering up some of the drawings.
Pressing forward, I follow the lights down the inky passage. From the ceiling, I could hear sand hiss and creep in from the gaps.
Something rustles around in my front pocket. A passport.
“Oh…” I whisper. Field trip to Egypt with my archeology friends for an abroad study. That explains the tomb.
After treading down the corridor for a few minutes, angelic rays spawn at the end of the tunnel. I turn my head away from the brightness. Right before I enter what I assumed was the way out, my foot sweeps away an object hard and metal.
A bloodied gun. When I raise it to my face for a good view, I see that the handle is engraved with my name on it. The barrel is splattered with blotches of crimson blood. I remove the clip. There aren’t any bullets in it.
Did I get into a shootout with someone? If so, then with who and why? This isn’t like me at all… I couldn’t have done something like that. There has to be something more to this, but first I need to get out of here.
Something flashes before my eyes.
A shimmering scale sits upon an altar with a tangerine white feather around the size of an eagle’s.
According to Egyptian mythology, Anubis would weigh the souls of the dead, represented by a heart, against a feather of a benevolent god. If the heart weighs less, one passes on to the next life.
I forgot what happens if it weighs more, though. But it isn’t a pleasant fate.
As I exit the corridor, a muscular human with the head of a basenji dog with pure black fur awaits behind the scale. Unlike dogs, his pupils were narrow and his bright amber eyes resembled that of a panther. On his shoulders was a cyan frill with golden spokes that hold it up.
Anubis.
This was the afterlife.
I couldn’t have died at this moment. If I did, then who killed me?
The muscular god steps away from the contraption in front of me, his sandals slapping the ground and his white tunic glinting off the sunlight entering through the pillars.
“Hello, mortal. What is your name?” Anubis spoke in a booming but level-headed voice. He begins to sniff my face in curiosity.
“I see. Your name is Bruce…” With a hand, he reaches into my chest, removing a mass that almost resembled a cloud, but if its vapors were condensed into a solid made of pure energy. For some reason, it doesn’t hurt. It kind of feels relaxing. When his hand finally emerges, my soul appears. Its glow is blinding and pure white like snow. In the god’s hands, the soul pulses between the webbing in his fingers. I lay a hand on my chest in shock. Anubis takes the soul and sets it down on the empty plate opposite to the feather.
“Let’s see how pure your soul is…”
“Squeeeeeeak…” the scale’s hinge makes as the soul is set down.
I put my hand to my mouth. “Oh, fuck.”
My soul weighed more.
Anubis’ calm expression morphs into snarl.
“UNWORTHY!” He bellows. All the rays are overtaken by a demonic miasma thick as tar. A fierce wind blows behind me, the gale swirling into a smoke cyclone. I whip my head around in a panic. A roar sounds from the epicenter of the maelstrom. Suspended on a neck several feet long was a crocodile’s head covered in matted human hair. Near the base of the neck is a leopard’s body fixed with patches of scales that poke out from the fur like sores. Its paws are lined with claws large enough to bisect a grain silo.
“What is that thing?!” I scream, dropping to the floor from the force of the storm.
“Ammit. The devourer of guilty souls.” Anubis says.
“What is the meaning of this? I’m innocent!” I retort. At the moment, I remember the gun I found on the floor. The night before, I was walking down a dark alley in order to get to my hotel. From the darkness of the buildings, several guys popped out and approached me. Or was it the other way around? The details aren’t all that clear right at the moment and the adrenaline in my veins is only confusing it even more.
“I don’t believe you,” Anubis scoffs. The crocodilian’s mouth opens wide as its neck pulls back like a snake in striking position.
In a blind move, I leap up, running to my soul on the scale and place it back into my chest. Just one second after I jump out of the strike zone, the beast chomps down on the altar. I freeze for a moment, paralyzed with fear as it stares me down with a look of malice. When my muscles finally relax, book it towards the corridor as Ammit sticks its jaw into the opening.
As I sprint away from the monster, I find myself visualizing more of the events that happened last night. I shot one of those guys in self-defense.
Was it self-defense, or did I have a heinous motive? They chased me around until I wound up here.
I couldn’t have possibly done something like that!
I know I’m innocent. I just know it! For just a moment, the statues seem to rattle by unknown means.
The torches above are snuffed out two-by-two. Glancing over my shoulder, floods of shadow figures with white eyes and mouths chase after, flowing like water from a raging river. One of the creatures pounces at me, raising a razor-edged hand to claw at me, but misses.
I run as fast as I can from the phantasms only for their pursuit to grow more intense, culminating when the walls and floor come to a dead stop.
A gaping slope occupies the area instead.
I halt myself before I can fall into the pit below. The legion of malevolent spirits continue behind, hot on my heels. My eyes search for any possible hiding gaps that could help me outsmart them.
Nothing but drawings cover the flat and straight walls. I doubt the statues would make good hiding spots, either.
I need to jump.
Reluctantly, I slide down the pit leading to an unknown destination, gripping the slippery edge. The skin of my palms is grated off, leaving behind bloody skidmarks. The spirits glide across the pavement, racing down the incline like slalom skiers.
A force like that of a charging rhino slams into my back, throwing my descent off and sending me flying. I catch myself before my chest could collide with the surface. Reorienting myself, I continue to slide down. I grit my teeth as my fingernails are ground off from the friction.
A body of water marks the end of the slope with a ledge not very far away. When the sandstone runway comes to an end, I catch myself with a foot against the solid floor’s edge, hoisting myself up from the icy water. Faint torchlight illuminates the tomb’s stone labyrinth.
Silhouettes of my pursuers cast over the lights.
I’m not in the clear.
I sprint down multiple pathways, darting down them, hoping I’d run into something to hide behind by chance. Down each of the hallways are those same statues from before, standing in neat rows. A sudden fork in the road appears.
Praying blind luck was on my side, I take the right path. The torches above start to go out with the movements of the poltergeists. Without a second thought, I take the left, darting down the hundreds of turning paths.
Then, I find an alcove with an old wooden bookshelf lying next to it.
“Yes!” I say to myself. I hide behind the bookshelf, covering the hiding spot with it.
Wrapping my arms around my chest, I try to silence my heart. A cold sweat forms when the sound of hundreds of hisses and malicious moans sound outside my secret base. As the legion passes by like a lava flow across a ravine, the lights all go out, extinguishing the rectangular halo marking the outside of the bookshelf.
After a while, the noises stop.
What were those things?
I press my back against the wall. Even if I couldn’t hear anything from the creatures, there’s always a chance that they could be right outside, preparing to give me the slip when I least expect it.
I feel around in my pockets, grinning when realize my phone was still there.
To my shock, the phone was at 50% battery. I slightly pump my fist. Without a second thought, I dial emergency services.
“I knew it…” I say when I can’t get a signal. “Was worth a shot, though.”
Why was I here, anyway?
There’s no way in hell I can be dead; my passport, gun and phone were still with me.
But Anubis is the god of the dead, so could have I found a hidden opening to the afterlife by mistake?
I needed to ponder the million-dollar question not at the moment. More important things should be on my mind. My heart drops when I connect the gun to the god of the dead.
If he considers me a “guilty soul,” then whatever I did with the gun, I was responsible for something egregious.
No, that can’t be right. I would not dare harm anyone for no good reason. Why was Anubis judging me so harshly, then? Trillions of questions run through my head like car parts on an assembly line, appearing only for a second before another question took its place. How could I have committed such a horrible act freely?
Anubis must have been wrong somehow, right? I grip my forehead as a stress headache wraps a metal band around my brain and constricts it.
I snap myself out of it, thinking of a game plan. Turning on the flashlight of my phone, I press my ear to the opposite end of the bookcase. The voices of those demons had vanished.
Slowly, I guide my makeshift barrier away from the nook, carefully shining my phone down the passages, seeing if the creatures were lying in wait.
None were there. Instead, the right passage was blocked by five of those armored statues with their weapons pointing away from me, as if they were trying to guard me from something.
“What are those statues trying to do?” I wonder. “Are they…trying to protect me from the shadow creatures?”
I sneak underneath the statues, pointing my beam at the edges of the slopes. Stairs lead up to the passage where I found that scale. That explains how I got up there. Must have run all the way up there before passing out right at the entrance of the judging altar.
I turn around, wandering down each of the chambers. Cloud cover masks the moon almost completely, with the exception of one tiny sliver that lit up the stone entrance to the maze. Sedimentary stairs lead up to it. My eyes follow the barely noticeable jagged steps down to the northwest corner.
I smirk. That’s my way out.
I feel a spontaneously cool breeze against my neck, destroying my joy just like that. My breathing stops.
Slowly, I crane my neck around, seeing what blew into me. The chittering and chattering returns. I cover the flashlight, hoping they do not see me.
As I see a pair of blank, pupilless white eyes, I bolt, scampering across the network of passage ways. I uncover the flashlight hoping it can guide me through the chambers.
Out of nowhere, I trip over a piece of stone. The wind is knocked out of me. In the span of a few seconds, the figures surround me. While I struggle to regain my breath, they all spin around into a whirlwind of torment, taking turns trying to lash at me. In a state of panic, I shine the light at one of the creatures.
It immediately lets out a bloodcurdling scream in agony that leaves a ringing in my ears. In a flash of rage, the fluid shadows slash the phone in two, sending sparks and plastic flying. The shadow creatures pause. Instantly, their pool cue-ball white eyes grow larger. Slits for mouths start to open from under their eyes, growing across their faces like weeds in a flowerbed. Drops of oil black darkness fall from the top of their mouths down to the neck region, resembling melting wires. All of them lunge towards me, shrieking with sounds louder than an exploding warhead.
I had angered them.
Realizing that time to escape is running out, I rush in between the shadows when the opportunity is right. They snag my leg. I grunt as my chest is scraped against the tile. Before they could deal any more damage, I squirm my way out, taking off and oblivious to my sense of direction.
I search for those protective statues. After a few seconds of looking around, I find them, standing perfectly still, not even flinching from the wind. Why aren’t those statues coming to protect me right now?
The tiny sliver from the clouded moon doesn’t provide much help lighting my way in front. It was a miracle I could at least know where the exit was.
As I pass through one of the corridors, two more waves of malevolent creatures burst through walls like SWAT officers ramming down a door. Making a hard left, I slide my foot across the ground, pushing myself up for extra momentum.
Then, a deep ravine suddenly meets me where a turbulent waterfall resides, leading to nothing but oblivion. More spirits come cascading out like soldiers dropping from the Trojan Horse, ready to attack a nearby city. I turn my head back, gasping when the malevolent entities continue their chase.
I take a deep breath, preparing myself to jump to the other side.
My foot slips against the slippery surface. Holding on for dear life, I pull myself out of the abyss before the mountain of spirits could have me in their clutches. When I finally am free, I find myself ruminating again.
Even if I do make it out alive, what are the police going to say? No. I know for sure that I am innocent. I won’t ever know if that is the case if I don’t get the hell out of here right now.
I make a hard right followed by hundreds of more turns. With every turn, the spirits’ numbers only grow. Once again, the statues come to life for a split second, only to freeze, still standing their ground.
Eventually, the beige staircases come into sight. My brow furrows as I push myself down the area leading up to it. One by one, more spirits come pouring in, entering from under crumbled archways, busted columns, and leaking through splits in the bricks.
Another flood of the shadow creatures come out from the mist and have me cornered once more. They all slash at me as I try to make it up the stairs. My shin bumps against a notch, scratching it. I try to kick away the spirits as they tug at me.
Out of nowhere, I am lifted off the ground completely helpless. All of my limbs are yanked and clawed at, pain crackling through my body. I flail around, trying to get the beasts to release me. Eventually, I free myself and continue to sprint towards the exit.
In desperation, the creatures nosedive right into me. I fall down again. All of them begin to cover me like swarms of flies around a fresh turd. The weight of the shadows becomes too great, pressing me down into the staircase.
As the pressure grows exponentially, I find myself unable to squirm out of the pile of living inkblots. My teeth feel like cracking against the top of my jaw. The edges of the stairs start to press into my limbs, forming deep marks. I can feel warmth leak out of my arms, trickling down the stairs. One of the malicious spirits takes a good hard look at my struggles, getting closer to my face, mocking me.
When I stare directly into the specter’s eyes, I give it a death glare, feebly trying to show it that I refuse to give up.
“You won’t ever find out the truth if you do not escape,” I whisper to myself. My voice is drowned out by the taunting chatters.
I grip my fingers to the pavement, getting into a pushup position. Grunting as I brace the load of the malevolent spirits, able to rise only an inch.
A roar resonates from the now minuscule doorway leading to the altar room. Instantly, the path is obliterated. Behind the cloud of rubble is the crocodile head of the chimera.
At once, the spirits overwhelm me, pushing me into the ground even harder than before. Labyrinth walls are thrown around, toppling like dominoes in the path of a hyperactive baby. I shut my eyes, hoping that the horror would just end the suffering quickly.
Behind my eyelids, a memory pops up.
Those same thugs pummel me to the ground, trying to beat me to a pulp. I pulled out my gun, shooting the closest assailant right in the chest. When the time is right, I push past the fray, past the bystanders just now investigating the commotion, sprinting while I stared at my gun incredulously and watching the blood drip onto the dirt path.
Suddenly, I am able to resist the force of the spirits. I scream in rage and in pain as I press my arms harder against the stairs, rising inch by inch. At the same time, ten of those same statues rise out of the darkness, swinging at the spirits with everything they have. In an instant, the shadows begin to dissolve from existence as they are sliced into liquid ribbons. The moment I can move my leg, I book it up to the top step. I turn around, Ammit still gaining on me, only just a few hundred yards away. I furrow my brow, running faster I thought was possible. Spotting the hulking colossus, the rock figures make a phalanx, holding their swords right at the beast. Their feet grind into the ground, leaving imprints.
When I reach the main opening, there is a flint black cavern leading directly to it. The night sky lights up the sandy path leading right to it.
Without hesitation, I move past the stoic statues, run up it, and listen to the soft sand crunch against my shoes. A cool breeze surrounds me like an angel’s wings comforting a grieving soul. I grunt, trying to outrun the malicious sons-of-bitches.
As the shadows notice my escape, they rush up the cave’s gullet like water out of a burst dam. The statues continue to hold back, but the specters only grow in anger, reaching through any possible openings. The closer I am to the exit, the less the stone soldiers are able to resist the thick dark mist.
Their fingers start to brush my back, only millimeters away and chattering warps into frustrated hisses that increase in volume.
The opening to the chamber yawns as it grows closer.
The spirits continue to come after me, their voices now shrieking louder than anything a man could make. My eardrums turn into nothing but bruised stumps. I cover my ears, still trying to keep up the pace while drowning out the noise.
And then I reach the edge of the cave, my feet digging into the desert sand.
The shadows halt upon ramming into an invisible wall right at the cave’s entrance.
All of the shadows howl in rage at my successful escape, reaching for me just inches from the gateway between the cave and the outside, but unable to move their arms past the barrier.
A few hundred yards away, I can see the skyline of Cairo, lighting up the stary night like pillars of fireworks.
As I dust the sediment off my pants, the specters slink back into their domain, flowing down the sloped hill like water moving down a stream. The statues, having completed their mission, bid me one last adieu before crumbling into dust and blending in with the sand.
I may have escaped the tomb, but I need to find my friends now. I try to see if I can call them, only to remember that my phone was destroyed.
Then, several thugs reveal themselves from the darkness without warning. All of them are holding baseball bats. I take a step back, putting my arms up in a guard position.
“You shouldn’t have killed our friend, dumbass…”